05/10/2012

Oceanic Treasure: Free for the Taking

Think of it as artistic gold. Mile after fish choking mile, debris from God knows where travels across the ocean to land forever in the Great Pacific Garbage Patch, or one of the other recently discovered oceanic trash-fills growing like The Blob in our beautiful Earth’s waters. But, what if we could do something extraordinary with it?

cleaning up the plastic trash in the ocean is virtually impossible, given the vast scale. The Pacific Garbage Patch, for example, stretches for hundreds of miles and is located 1,000 miles north of Hawaii.

"Most people who work on this issue agree that prevention is the critical step," she said. "Once a piece of plastic is in the ocean, it is really hard and expensive to get it out again."

But what if someone were willing to pay for it? Say, an art lover who happens to also have a passion for our planet? Does such a person exist? I dare say yes.

What if we could, with our social media collective consciousness, make this “trash” a viable commodity? What if it were bought and sold on the big markets? Then it could be “harvested” by would be gold-miner types, and sold to the highest bidder, who could create stuff with it and sell it for what it is: a savior of fish: Hope for the planet: Love of the ocean; Sea bird saved.

It would take a lot, for sure. Somebody would have to come up with a way to authenticate it. We won’t use just any trash… it has to be ocean trash. Salt content, perhaps? The 14k stamp equivalent of “yep it’s real, folks!”

Oh it’s not a new idea. See what Oregon-based artist Angela Haseltine Pozzi is already doing!

What if we could take it even further? Make every household in the world want a piece of ocean-saving art? People are already making dresses out of recycled plastic. Just think of the possibilities! This would have to be way more than an ocean awareness campaign. We need to bring in the big boys - The folks with serious cash: Investors who expect a serious return on their dollar. Somebody to fund the clean up and be excited to reap the rewards.

Probably the best way to do that, is to create a demand. Pre-orders anyone?